Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Americans Fighting Their Own Government For Economic Survival

by Marita Noon

...On May 8, I drove 2.5 hours to attend a public meeting
about a new management plan for federal lands in three New Mexico
counties—it was the last of three such public meetings. The plan was
outlined, but attendees were not allowed to ask questions or comment
during the presentation. Maps lined the room’s perimeter. In short,
myriad acts and laws have to be taken into account in the management of
public lands including the Endangered Species Act, the Federal Lands
Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air
Act, and the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA)—just to name a
few. By the time all of these layers of regulation are applied to
nominated portions of federal lands, virtually all economic activity is
prohibited or severely limited—including ranching/grazing, mining, and
oil and gas extraction. Even recreational uses, such as off-highway
vehicles (OHV), can be banned or severely restricted.

After
the 2-hour session, I felt agitated and frustrated. In the brief public
presentation, we were told that they were holding these meetings
because NEPA requires public participation. However, unlike the other
public meetings I’ve attended, no public comment was allowed at the
meeting. Additionally, when attendees were instructed on how provide
written comment, we were told that we were to offer only “substantive
comments” on the data and/or the science—not to vote in favor of, or
opposition to, the Resource Management Plan (RMP).

Following
the meeting, I spent time with Bill Childress, the District Manager for
the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for the Las Cruces office and Dave
Wallace, the Assistant District Manager. I pointed out that their format
discourages public comment, as no average person is ever going to read
the 500+ page document—or be able to offer comment on the science or the data. “That’s the way it is,” was the response.

Regarding
the BLM’s comment process, Joanne Spivack, an activist fighting the
closure of roads and trails to motorized use, told me: “The only thing
that matters are comments that specifically challenge how the RMP
analysis is being done. That’s what ‘substantive’ means. 99.999% of the
public don’t understand what that means. It takes a firm understanding
of the NEPA process to write a comment that can challenge the agency and
lead to an appeal (and lawsuit). The only things we can submit that can
be used for our appeals, or in a lawsuit, are our formal comments
submitted by the deadline. Those comments must be based solely on what is in the written Draft RMP and its associated documents.”

With
Childress and Wallace, another meeting attendee and I discussed the
known oil and gas resources and the potential presence of rare-earth
elements. The TriCounty RMP designates several ACECs (Area of Critical
Environmental Concern)—which are essentially managed as “wilderness
areas,” though ACECs are not designated by Congress. Childress and
Wallace explained that the process of creating ACECs is at the
discretion of the Bureau; it is qualitative not quantitative, and
subjective. They told us that generally conservation groups nominate the
ACECs. Spivack noted: “There is no place or time in the process for the
public to oppose the ACECs.”

Surprise! The Wilderness Society’s website offers their “Wish List for the BLM in 2013”—which
includes: “Designate Otero Mesa as an ACEC in the TriCounty RMP and
initiate an administrative mineral withdrawal for the area to protect
its innumerable natural and cultural resources.”

The proposed 198,511-acre ACEC for Otero Mesa includes the following potential resource-use limitations:

Exclusion and limitations of new rights-of way,

Closure to mineral sales and geothermal leasing,

Closure to vegetation sales, and

Limitation of vehicle use to designated routes.

Spivack
explains it this way: “The RMP doesn’t have specifics about what will
be banned, why or where. There are no facts, no analysis and no proof
that an ACEC is needed. But the RMP lays the groundwork for future
lock-downs, by creating ‘conceptual’ frameworks such as ‘desired
conditions’ and by creating new designation areas like ACECs. The RMPs
have vague wording about future restrictions, which could be imposed in
order to ‘protect the values’ of the ACEC. The ACEC is a way of creating
management ‘goals’ which trump multiple use. The ACEC is a blank check
and can be used restrict any activity under any excuse they want to cook
up.”

The
Otero Mesa portion of the BLM managed lands has the potential for oil
and gas resources, and rare-earth elements. Due to existing land-use
restrictions—before the proposed RMP is even implemented—a company
interested in developing the rare earths was required to do its
minimal-impact exploration with 19th century technology: horses and hand
tools. When the exploration was complete, a hand rake was used to erase
the footprints and restore the land. A company executive reported: “The
RMP has the potential to adversely impact future mineral development.”

Commissioner
Rardin and all his fellow county commissioners in Otero County are
excited about the potential economic benefit the rare-earth mining
project could bring: $25 million in the first year alone. Rardin
believes one of the goals of the RMP is to stop the mining project. He
told me: “The BLM is taking away our ability to make a living. As long
as I am commissioner, I will challenge them and look to properly use our
lands.” In Otero Country—a county as big as the state of Connecticut
with 62,000 residents, only 12% of the land is taxable. The potential
for mineral extraction, including oil and gas, is important for the
community—and the people want it. Locking up the resources constitutes a
government taking.

Ranchers
in the region feel the same way. Steve Wilmeth, a rancher from southern
New Mexico whose family came to New Mexico beginning in 1880, wrote
about these attacks on the culture and customs of the West:
“Increasingly, Westerners are governed not by laws, but by policy and
regulations. Local governance isn’t planning or crafting solutions for
communities. Rather, local governance is defending itself against the
latest project being driven by conservation cooperation agreements.”
Regarding the policies to be instituted and policed by the agencies,
Wilmeth, in The Westerner,
writes: “There is no grassroots land planning in this debacle. This is
an end-run legislative proxy. It is being engineered by the
environmental brokers.”